Scottish Rugby
Scotland are currently not a particularly good rugby team. This does not mean that they will always remain so, but they have 5 or 6 decent players (White, Bulloch, Cussiter, Taylor and Paterson), and a load of journeyman players. They played out of their skins against France and were desparately unlucky not to snatch a win (which on form they would not have deserved, but on the day they did). They played well in the first 20 minutes against Ireland, but were then outplayed for the rest of the game. They have improved out of all recognition since last seasona nd particularly the autumn internationals, in which they were absolutely dire.
Most rugby pundits, and indeed all but the monst one-eyed Scots, would agree with the above assessment. Dan, however, does not, and claims that the Scots are more or less the best side in the VI Nations. Everyone is obviously entitled to their opinions, and I await Dan's justification for these with interest.
Most rugby pundits, and indeed all but the monst one-eyed Scots, would agree with the above assessment. Dan, however, does not, and claims that the Scots are more or less the best side in the VI Nations. Everyone is obviously entitled to their opinions, and I await Dan's justification for these with interest.
posted by Jonathan | Sunday, February 13, 2005
5 Comments:
The scots may not have individual stars like othe 6 nations sides, but they do play well as a team. May I also add they had a very good world cup, and that they have won the same number of games in this championship at the moment as England, who are in fact the world champions.
I would also say that my prediction that wales will win the championship, made before the start of the competition, is likely to prove true, and that this proves my value as a rugby commentator.
Wales have not won an awful lot in the last 20 years, and although I don't know this to be true, I would be fairly confident in saying their results over the last 20 years have not been so different from Scotland. I know you are able to provide statistics, and would be interested to see them.
SIX NATIONS 2000-04 - composite five-season table
Table over the last 5 seasons (from the BBC)
P W D L Pts
England 25 20 0 5 40
France 25 18 0 7 36
Ireland 25 18 0 7 36
Wales 25 8 1 16 18
Scotland 25 7 1 17 17
Italy 25 3 0 22 4
OK, statistics from the last 25 years in the 5 or 6 Nations:
(for each country: no of times finished 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc.)
France: 9-7-5-2-2-0
England: 8-9-3-3-2-0
Ireland: 3-5-2-7-8-0
Scotland: 3-4-7-6-4-1
Wales: 2-0-8-7-7-1
Italy: 0-0-0-0-2-3
Wales have been by far the worst side, only finishing in the top 2 on 2 out of 25 occasions. Scotland have been far better than Wales over this time frame. However, their team NOW is awful. I did not compare it to Wales, I just said that this Scottish side is very bad. They are slightly less bad than they were in the Autumn, and they were certainly better than the French, but they were not good against Ireland and did not deservce anything out of that game.
Dan - I'll send you the full stats.
I believe that your conclusion that the current scottish side is "awful" and "very bad" is too harsh, but the final results will speak for themselves.
A team that can come that close to beating France in France in the first game deserves the benefit of the doubt.
But to be fair, France themselves played so badly that Grove 3rds woudl have had a decent stab at getting close to them!
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